Heading South!

Wednesday morning dawned pretty and hot. As we left Ludington, we followed the
S. S.Badger out of port. It was smooth on Lake Michigan as we headed for Muskegon where AWEIGH docked about three o’clock. A little later Ed and Nancy Weise, Pam and Mike Foster picked us up at the marina and took us to the Foster’s lovely home on a nearby lake. We had a good visit and even got in a quick game of Shanghai before going to dinner. The Fosters have come to Ft. Myers the past two winters and it is always a pleasure to see them. The Weises summer travel in their motor home has crossed paths with us several times, but now we are off in different directions so we won’t see them until Nov. when we both return to Gulf Harbour.

Thursday morning was again pretty and calm and although we originally planned to stop at South Haven, we changed our minds and went directly to Michigan City, Indiana which was a little over 100 miles. We docked about two o’clock because we were back in the central time zone. The Michigan City Marina was huge---518 slips!

The Captain said “we will be on our way early Friday” and that we did. By nine o’clock we could see the Chicago skyline as we entered the Calumet River. From that point on the day was long, tedious and HOT but also interesting, as we plowed through the heavily industrial area of the Cal-Sag Canal. We went through 44 bridges (however, we only required 4 bridge openings) and at the end of the day, a lock which required forty five minutes of waiting before we could enter. We arrived at Joliet, Illinois where we planned to stop only to encounter another bridge for which we had to request an opening. It was closed for rush hour traffic from 4:15 to 5:15 and we arrived at 4:16, so again we waited and finally docked at Centennial Park about six. Shortly after that a gentleman came along and talked to Ned and told him that a few weeks earlier a barge had broken loose from its tow and slammed into a pleasure boat docked right where we were docked. At that point, we went inside and poured ourselves glass of wine! That evening there were some good fireworks—don’t know what the occasion was—but we enjoyed them from our boat.
oday, Saturday August 4th is our 45th anniversary! We left Joliet early, only to sit and wait first for a bridge opening and then for a lock entry. It was a very slow day and not much mileage was covered. Late this afternoon, it was raining and we weren’t near any marinas of size so we are anchored in a nice private and protected cove off the Illinois river..
At the speed we are able to travel here on the Illinois River, we probably won’t get to St. Louis until mid week even though it is only about two hundred forty miles. We definitely have a “heading for the barn” mentality.
Judy